Floyd Mayweather Senior’s wrinkled face is a map of hard living.
There are as many nooks, nicks, crannies and crevices on his face that you might think you’re looking at a lunar map.
For a guy whose middle name is Joy, there’s been plenty of pain and anguish, some of it self-inflicted, in his years.
He’s 56 now and, on Saturday he buried his estranged father, Theartha (age 81).
His own ring career was sabotaged by a prison stint for slinging drugs. They say he was once shot at while holding his son, future world champion and boxing supernova Floyd Joy, in his arms.
I don’t know if there is a right side of the tracks in gritty Grand Rapids, Mich., but Mayweather, whose father took a hike when he was only 15, was to the ghetto born.
I don’t claim to be a close friend of his. I’m certainly no associate or confidante of the poetry spouting, Mountain Dew swilling trainer.
But I have been in his presence enough to know he’s not the Heckle & Jeckel cartoon character he portrays on the HBO 24/7 minstrel shows.
Mayweather Sr. is a real man and he knows boxing, the mechanics of the sport, inside and out. If he knew cars the way he knows fighters, he would working on Porsches and Mercedes Benz vehicle and not some gas guzzling clunkers.
I was surprised that Papa M was willing to discuss boxing, seemingly a more mundane topic than ever as he prepared for his father’s wake on Friday in Michigan. But he was and this is part of what he had to say.
On the cold public reaction to Marquez-Mayweather: “Some fights catch on as they get closer to happening. That may be the case here, that the excitement will build as the fight gets closer.”
On his brother Roger’s criminal law problems: “I stay out of it because that is his business. He’s the one that’s got to deal with it, not me. I will say this, though…if he doesn’t learn and learn real fast, it’s going to end in something that’s not so nice.”
On Li’l Floyd showing ring rust Sept. 19: “Every fighter has some ring rust after a layoff. But he will win this fight with Marquez. Marquez is a good, tough fighter but my son is too slick for him.Marquez’s hands will be just too slow. Marquez won’t be able to counter punch Floyd the way he did Pacquiao and others. It’s going to be a big difference in timing. Marquez might think fast but can he get off fast? Floyd won’t let him do that. My son's feet, his hands and his brain are too fast."
On dealing with a lung disease: “It makes you short of breath but I feel good know. I’m going back to Vegas on Tuesday. I want to keep trying to help my son get ready for Marquez.”
On the Pacman-Cotto fight coming Nov. 14: “I think Pacquiao is too much for Cotto right now but my thing is if Cotto can hit hard to the body and to the head, he can knock Pacquiao out. Cotto knock his ass out! If he don’t land those shots, he is not gonna win against Pacquiao.”
Maybe this is an appreciation of Floyd Senior. Come to think of it, it is.
Deal with it because, when it comes to boxing and the hard knocks of life, this man is an expert.
He never went to college but he is loaded with common sense.
Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-5699-NY-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m8d23-Papa-Mayweather-Miguel-Cotto-can-knock-Manny-Pacquiaos-ass-out
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